Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I had thought that after teaching the same students for over a year it would be possible for most of them at least to fill out a simple questionaire about future careers. In two grade 2 HS classes today I had discussion questions with complete hanguel translations and then a questionaire mostly filled out already where they just had to fill in blanks and circle stuff, like

4. I think that _________________ and _________________________ will be important career fields in the future because __________________________________________.

After I had gone over vocab like 'career field' and I had shown them eight pics of various career fields (science, agriculture, computer programming) that were listed as options in the English / Hanguel questions; we ranked them in terms of future importance, with me sticking the pics to the board with magnets.

All was going well until it actually came time for them to fill in the questionaire. Even with promises of 'after we finish this we can play a game / go for lunch' solicited little initiative whatsover. In each class I had a few make decent efforts but most just sat there starring at their papers. It's not that the ones in these classes are lazy students - 80% of them aren't and do a great job of copying, repeating, circling, and memorising. But when it comes to saying or writing anything that they've thought up the vast majority just can't do a fucking thing. I walk by classrooms that have had lessons from the Korean English teachers and see vocabulary that some Canadian secondary students might not know. They're OK at listening comprehension and most can understand me if I speak slowly using simple words - in fact this is one area where I've noticed some genuine improvement. Their pronunciation is noticeably better and most of them can pronounce R / L / Th / S vs. Sh / F / V properly now if they think about it. The vast majority just can't use the bloody language for themselves.

When it comes to getting your kids actually using English where do you start? After today I'm wondering if I shouldn't just go to Side-by-Side or Let's Go chapter 1. Or should I stick to listening comprehension and try to talk to the few who can come up with something outside the classroom? It's just so mind-numbingly frustrating to think they've finally reached a point where they can do something remotely original and go from a great phonics lesson to a great dialogue lesson to a great listening comprehension lesson to absolutely flopping at coming up with 20-30 words themselves.

Sorry, that's my rant for today.

[ucfvgirl]

Hey, we have all had lessons like this. I am still at the middle school level and have decided that I won't be here again next year. I can't stand going to a class, having a great lesson planned, and having the students not care, don't want to learn, not listening, talking or they just don't understand. I taught at the same school last year and I decided that this year I would try different techniques. Nothing has changed between last year and this year except my attitude. Some days I don't even want to come to school.

Just this week I had a class that was completely out of control and the Korean English teacher was no help. In fact the class was her homeroom class. I have the students attend my classes in the English zone that I set up for them. I thought to make things more interesting and a little different for them, I would set up the room in groups of four. I have been doing this for months now and I have had enough. The students are just not capable of doing anything out of the ordinary rote learning they are used to. So, I have rearranged the desks back into rows. It really makes me angry that I have to punish the good ones because those that do do the work are good students. But those that don't, are so bad.

I just keep telling myself that there is only two more months and then it's winter break and the beginning of the new school year. All will change again and things will get better in March.

[the_beaver]

How does that have anything to do with being original?

[jstrain]

Korean students are in their comfort zone when they are copying. If I have students copy a passage from a text because they're too noisy and not reading it, it's OK!

Your blank model is a good idea. They will need more practice at it though. Then expand it to leave out articles and other parts of speech. It could be a lot of fun reading their creations back to the class.

[riley]

What I've noticed is that a lot of them are just too freaked out about making a mistake. Sometimes, they also just can't make the leap in thinking to really understand the work either. It's too different for them.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ilovebdt]

[Privateer]

Maybe part of the problem is they genuinely don't have a clue about what to do in the future? Try a similar activity with something that really sparks their interest (then the next problem is when they get so carried away they forget structure altogether ).

[thu_tinh]

when i let the students tell me what they think in korean works a lot better if the co-teacher is handy to translate what the students are saying. than i write it down on my note book in english and he/she would just copy. usually they are quite pleased. but i make them read it out loud after.
but thinking outside the box is sometimes impossible considering they have to memorize the text, and not really needing to know what it means.

[Lizara]

My elementary school kids LOVE those fill-in-the-blanks kind of exercises. The middle schoolers, not so much... but I can never tell if they're bored or shy or just way too tired. I don't think it's a lack of creativity.

I think you should keep doing those kinds of exercises, giving them similar structures... if they don't have a structure to start from, they'll really struggle... and try to find some topics that they're interested in. My elementary school kids, for the most part, don't show much evidence of original thinking either when it comes to careers.

[Boodleheimer]

[coolsage]

i think it's the Confucian system grabbing them by the throats and wringing any creativity out of them... by the time they're in high school, it's gone.[/quote] That's key: original thinking is discouraged. The collective mindset is all. There was no doubt a time when this served its purpose, but in an age of relative prosperity, that purpose is gone. It serves only those at the top of the food-chain, those who see themselves as the descendants of the yangban. They are the ones who have the most to lose when people here start to do their own thinking. Witness the contrast between those who have lived abroad and those who have not.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

After trying the same thing in my best grade one class and other grade 2 class today I think I'm about ready just to give up on lessons components like this and save this sort of stuff to really small 'camp' classes and such in the future. The grade 2 class today was just pityful. About seven of them were away doing or getting ready for some other school activity and the other 22 didn't seem interested in doing anything challenging today. I thought that if I could give them more individual attention today, 'only' having 22 students, it would work better, but one minute X 10 students still only = 10 partially completed handouts. Even keeping them right until the final bell went as they watched other classes walk by on their way to lunch after getting dismissed a bit early was no incentive.

I wonder if this sort of thing would work better if I gave them Hanguel questions, had them answer in Hanguek, and then try to translate their answers into English?

[ilovebdt]